“Over the past five years the number of motor vehicle product liability lawsuits filed in federal courts has dropped nearly 40 percent, according to the latest available data from the federal courts. During August 2013 the government reported 17 new filings of this sort, down 10.5 percent from the previous month and 8 percent lower… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
The International Court of Justice’s 2012 Jurisprudence
What a Difference a Year Makes: The International Court of Justice’s 2012 Jurisprudence. Sean D. Murphy, George Washington University – Law School, August 2013. Journal of International Dispute Resolution, 2013 (Forthcoming). GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2013-107 . GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013-107 “An analysis of any particular decision of the International Court of Justice sometimes misses… Continue Reading
Declassified FISA Court Opinion Released – Addresses Legality of Phone Metadata Collection
Ellen Nakashima – Washington Post: “A federal surveillance court on Tuesday released a declassified opinion upholding the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s sweeping collection of billions of Americans’ phone records for counterterrorism purposes. The gathering of “all call detail records” from phone companies is justified as long as the government can show that it… Continue Reading
FISA Court Orders Declassification Review of Rulings on NSA
ACLU: “In an important decision, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government to review for release the court’s opinions on the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The ruling is on a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, and Yale Law… Continue Reading
EPIC – Federal Appellate Court Upholds Privacy Protection for Wi-Fi Communications
“The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling against Google in a case arising out of the Street View interception of private Wi-Fi communications. The lawsuit alleges that Google’s ongoing interception of Wi-Fi payload data through its Street View program violated several laws, including the federal Wiretap Act. The court rejected… Continue Reading
Office of National Intelligence Releases New Documents on NSA Surveillance
EPIC: “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released new documents concerning the NSA’s surveillance programs. The documents, which include numerous filings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, date back to 2006. The documents specifically relate to the governments collection of information under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. In a… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Community Colleges, Education Research, FAA Facilities, Federal Judgeships, FOIA, NARA
COMMUNITY COLLEGES – New Federal Research Center May Enhance Current Understanding of Developmental Education – GAO-13-656, Sep 10, 2013 EDUCATION RESEARCH – Preliminary Observations on the Institute of Education Sciences’ Research and Evaluation Efforts – GAO-13-852T, Sep 10, 2013 FAA FACILITIES – Improved Condition Assessment Methods Could Better Inform Maintenance Decisions and Capital- Planning Efforts – GAO-13-757, Sep 10, 2013 FEDERAL JUDGESHIPS – The General… Continue Reading
Spiegel Online – NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data
“The United States’ National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google’s Android mobile operating system. The documents state that it… Continue Reading
WaPo – Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011
Ellen Nakashima: “The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material. In addition, the court extended… Continue Reading
ACLU to Court: Government Spying Invades Privacy of Each and Every American
ACLU: “[On August 26, 2013], we filed the opening brief in our lawsuit challenging the NSA’s ongoing collection of the call records of virtually everyone in the United States, including the ACLU’s. We’re asking the court for a preliminary injunction ordering the government to stop collecting our data and to bar any use of the… Continue Reading
Guardian – NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies
Ewen MacAskill in New York, The Guardian, Thursday 22 August 2013: “The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency’s activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian. The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred… Continue Reading
CRS – GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis
Follow up to previous posting, Amazon’s lawsuit released against GAO in cloud computing contract case, see this new CRS report, GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis, August 9, 2013: “Bid protests on federal government contracts filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have recently received increased congressional scrutiny due to protests of high-profile awards and… Continue Reading
